Upon knowing that Imperial Tobacco's Petone Factory in New Zealand is quadrupling its exports to Australia, a public health professor claims that exports of tobacco and cigarette instead of getting settled in this city should be totally banned from here.

The factory during its $45 million project is expected to produce 8000 cigarettes in a minute.

At present, a large number of Imperial's cigarettes for Australia are produced by British American Tobacco in Sydney but it is till June only that this agreement will be carried out. Then it will be ruled out and from then onwards Petone plant will begin benefiting from it.

But according to Nick Wilson, who is an associate professor for Public Health at the University of Otago in Wellington, New Zealand being a responsible nation should not ban exporting of any tobacco.

He said "Everyone knows this is a hazardous product, we should be in phase-out mode, and that means as part of that there should be no exports. We're not allowed to export certain products like land mines, we sign treaties to ban that, well this should be in the same category".

He said that when government failed to expand this plant, it was then that this tobacco industry was given the responsibility of doing it.

But then if this plant is expanded, then there exist 50 new jobs and it is something good and beneficial for the local economy said chief executive of Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, David Kiddey.

This way the economy here will get a good chance to grow. After so many years New Zealand will get the most significant job growth.

Tobacco is a permissible product and if Australians prefer smoking it, then they can even buy it from New Zealand.